Thanks for all your help everyone (: I called the Animal Shelter today, and will be volunteering on the weekends! My friend and I are also planning to go sing at the nursing home on Sunday for the ederly (: Thanks for all your help, it's greatly appreciated!

I commend you for thinking outside of yourself. That's rare in teens, and I think you about to become an exceptional adult. You are someone I would like to know.

What matters to you, is personal to you. I don't know. I am a foster parent, for me, I get the homeless, the poor, I don't do well with the mentally ill.
A lot of people who know me personally, they wonder how I deal with defiance and theft. It's normal to me, I don't know how Miss J changes diapers, on a 16+ yr old, but she is ok with that.

It has to be your thing, what is your thing - and whatever that is, that's fine, we need you.

As you are 16, be sure to take your feelings into account in planning your education and career. There are many careers that provide you the opportunity to help other people. I know that advice from old fogies like me doesn't mean much to young people, but I spent the first 16 years of my career working for money, and the last 25 years working for the satisfaction of helping other people, and as I sit here retired and I look back over my life I am very satisfied and proud of the second 25 years, and the first 16 are meaningless...

An update for you all: I volunteer now twice a week at the animal shelter walking dogs, bottle feeding kittens and what not (: I absolutely love it! I even found a home for one of the dogs. It feels great to give back! Thanks for all the ideas and support! (:

May I also suggest actually living your everyday life as a nicer person. Offer your help to a lady trying to reach a higher shelf at the supermarket. Offer change to parents outside the store with kids hounding them for gumball machine toys. Smile at the old man who walks by you, say excuse me, say hello. Say thank you. Be better everyday. Be polite. Your sixteen, and still trying to find yourself. So glad to hear someone wanting to better themselves! Good for you! And God bless!

I know you said you already started volunteering at the animal shelter, but may I suggest doing some volunteer work/visiting the local military veteran's hosptial/home. These are the people that forged our freedom before some of us were even a twinkle in our parent's eye.

I have been part of fund raisers that help support the Wounded Warriors program. It has brought so many tears of happiness to see the effect our contributions and participation brings to these guys and gals.
To hear some of the stories they are willing to tell of what they witnessed and experienced themselves would make the average Joe fall into a fetal position and cry. Yet they stand there with honor for having the opportunity to give so much to so many without the thought of asking for help. It was/is their duty and their job that they accepted when they put ink to paper as they told us.

Please do not forget those who allow us the freedom to bicker amongst ourselves over frivolous things. Without their sacrifices we would not be where we are today as a country or a people.

Sorry for making this as long as I did, but it holds a lot of weight on me.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Horse Forum forums, you must first register.

Already have a Horse Forum account?
Members are allowed only one account per person at the Horse Forum, so if you've made an account here in the past you'll need to continue using that account. Please do not create a new account or you may lose access to the Horse Forum. If you need help recovering your existing account, please Contact Us. We'll be glad to help!

New to the Horse Forum?Please choose a username you will be satisfied with using for the duration of your membership at the Horse Forum. We do not change members' usernames upon request because that would make it difficult for everyone to keep track of who is who on the forum. For that reason, please do not incorporate your horse's name into your username so that you are not stuck with a username related to a horse you may no longer have some day, or use any other username you may no longer identify with or care for in the future.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Old Thread Warning

This thread is more than 90 days old. When a thread is this old, it is often better to start a new thread rather than post to it. However, If you feel you have something of value to add to this particular thread, you can do so by checking the box below before submitting your post.I am aware that this is an old thread and I want to revive it rather than starting a new thread.